The Repco Racing Programme 1940-1970: Innovation and Enterprise in the Private Sector
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Harriet Edquist | RMIT Design Archives, RMIT University The Repco racing programme 1940-1970: innovation and enterprise in the private sector In 1966 Jack Brabham (1926-2014) became the first, and still the only, person to win a Formula One world championship driving one of his own cars. The BT19 was designed by Ron Tauranac and powered by a Repco Brabham engine (RB620) designed by Phil Irving and engineered by Repco under the supervision of Frank Hallam in Melbourne. While built in England, the BT19 was an all-Australian affair. Brabham's story is well known; an online search will brings up dozens of sites dedicated to him and his three Formula One world championships. The contribution of those who worked with him is less well known to the general public, if not to those interested in the history of Australian motorsport.1 With this in mind, the intention of the present paper was to account for the surprisingly widespread Australian involvement in international post war racing, focussing on Brabham, Tauranac and Irving with some consideration of Repco. Once in the Repco archive, however, my attention turned to the company itself and the development of its racing program. This research showed that Repco's commitment to racing was almost as old as the company, and was not a response to Brabham's 1963 request for a replacement for the Coventry Climax engine, as much of the literature suggests. It also showed that Repco's decentralised company structure, that encouraged personal initiative within its groups, may have been instrumental in providing the conditions under which a racing culture could thrive, a culture that was not necessarily nurtured for financial gain. 1| AHA 2016 Conference Proceedings Harriet Edquist The Repco racing programme 1940-1970: innovation and enterprise in the private sector Robert Geoffrey Russell (1892-1946) and the Repco organisation In November 1922, 30-year old Robert 'Geoff' Russell registered Auto Grinding Company, an engine-reconditioning business he had established in a galvanised iron shed at the corner of Gipps and Rokeby Streets in Collingwood.2 Catering to the growing automotive industry, the venture was successful, and in 1924 Russell moved to larger premises at 278 Queensberry Street on the corner of Berkeley Street, Carlton, near the centre of Melbourne's motor trade, which clustered around the top end of Elizabeth Street near the former Haymarket. In 1926 he and a friend Bill Ryan formed Replacement Parts Pty Ltd and a year later Russell Manufacturing Company was established in North Melbourne for piston- grinding and finishing. The office for Replacement Parts moved to a more central location at 618 Elizabeth Street in 1930, which fronted the Berkley street building. Carrying the largest stock of its kind in Australia, they invested in good point of sale design and customer relations and famously comprehensive catalogues; stock was always ready to hand, it was kept up to date and the staff were well trained, factors that explain 'the remarkable speed with which the right part comes to light when asked for'.3 In the four years from 1932 to 1936 staff numbers increased from 50 to 150, premises grew and Repco extended its activities into the accessory and equipment fields. 4 The Elizabeth street premises were rebuilt. Replacement Parts (known as Repco from 1930 and incorporated as Repco Limited in 1937) expanded into regional Victoria (Sale and Hamilton) in 1932 and interstate to Tasmania in 1933 when it purchased 50% of Edmondson's Auto Spares in Launceston, soon buying out the remaining 50% to create Replacement Parts (Tas). In 1941 Repco also acquired engineering firm A T Richardson and Sons. In 1930 Russell had bought 89-95 Burnley Street, Richmond and created a new company, Russell Manufacturing Co. Pty Ltd where they established a foundry to manufacture their own piston castings and piston rings, operating out of open sided buildings on the extensive Richmond site. Growth of the business and its foundry footprint continued during the war when it ramped up production to meet wartime demand.5 A new building on the corner of Burnley and Doonside streets was erected in 1942 that, along with the Auto Grinding and Elizabeth Street buildings, still exists. 6 So, from the earliest years Russell created a particular business culture - of manufacture as well as merchandising, of acquisition, decentralisation (which was a new idea at the time),7 experimentation and training that not only gave him considerable market advantage over his competitors but was to characterise Repco for years to come. Auto Grinding, Replacements Parts and Russell Manufacturing were the core around which Repco built its organisation. 2| AHA 2016 Conference Proceedings Harriet Edquist The Repco racing programme 1940-1970: innovation and enterprise in the private sector John Storey (1896-1955) and industrial management Russell retired in 1945 due to ill health, and died the following year. In 1945 John Storey became Chairman of Directors and during his ten years at the helm Repco enjoyed a period of extraordinary growth. Storey was a supremely accomplished industrialist and businessman. In 1934 he had become director of manufacturing at GM-H, based in Melbourne, and joined the board. He supervised the erection of GM-H factories at Fishermans Bend (completed 1936), and Pagewood (1940) and the refurbishment of plants in Brisbane and Perth. Denis Nettle argues that Storey used his position as Director of Manufacturing at GM-H to try to persuade GM’s US management to allow Australia to manufacture its own car, both through advocacy and "through the way he adapted Sloan system management approaches to Australian conditions". For example: In the US GM had outplayed Ford through its ability to coordinate mass production of components from several plants to manufacture multiple models. Storey used these techniques to show how the coordination of small lot production of components across plants could also be used to efficiently produce cars in small volumes.8 Storey was appointed a director on the board of Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation and during the war when the decision was made to undertake complete local manufacture of the Beaufort aircraft, Storey, having resigned from GM-H, was put in charge. Building the Beaufort bomber was one of Australian industry's more spectacular achievements.9 In this role Storey sub-contracted to some six hundred firms across Australia the production of components which were fed into seven sub-assembly workshops and, finally, the main assembly factories at Fishermans Bend and at Mascot, Sydney.10 Thus, by the time Storey came to Repco he was highly qualified to transform the company 'from a distributor and manufacturer of engine parts, rings and pistons into the largest integrated manufacturer and distributor of car components in Australia'.11 Importantly, in terms of the organisation's future, in 1949 he reconstituted Repco as a holding company with subsidiary and associated firms becoming self-contained units or companies within its overall structure. During the 1940s and early 50s Storey undertook an aggressive acquisition campaign bringing in successful manufacturing enterprises that complemented the core business of servicing the automotive sector. These included Patons Brake Replacements (1947), Warren and Brown, which included gasket manufacturer Brenco (1949), Precision Metal 3| AHA 2016 Conference Proceedings Harriet Edquist The Repco racing programme 1940-1970: innovation and enterprise in the private sector Stampings (1949) Specialised Engineering Co (1950), P J Bearings (1952), Hardy Spicer (Aust) specialists in universal joints (1954), and piston manufacturer Brico (1955). At the same time Repco created new companies that sat alongside the acquisitions, including Repco Electrics (Replex 1946), Repco Cycles (1947), Repco Bearing Co. (1948) and others.12 It was a pattern that continued for many years and resulted in 'a strong Australian owned components sector, which meant that as large US component suppliers began to enter the Australian market in the 1950’s they were required to negotiate with Repco'.13 In 1970 when interviewed about Repco’s success, then Managing Director Peter Rosenblum referred to these owned and affiliated companies as ‘profit centres’, terminology that had been coined by Austrian-born American management theorist Peter Drucker in about 1945.14 In 1943 Drucker had conducted research on the GM organisation and in his findings, Concept of the Corporation, published in 1946, he used the term ‘federal decentralization’ to describe the way GM was organised around a number of autonomous businesses each under is own manager. A factor in its dominance over Ford by the late 1920s was the way in which Alfred Sloan, unlike Ford, had embraced the idea of management and welded his ‘undisciplined barons’ into an effective management team. 15 Similarly, under Storey's leadership, Repco's structure could be likened to that of 'federal decentralisation', in that when a new company was acquired, it continued to operate as before and its manager became part of the larger management team. Storey also adhered closely to the "line and staff" management principles he had encountered at GM-H.16 Not surprisingly given this background, Storey established a close relationship with Holden, in the supply of parts, such that, according to Murray and White, "Repco rode on the Holden's back to spectacular growth".17 Charles McGrath (1910-1984) and Repco Racing The acquisition strategy adopted by Repco had to do with enhancing core business and lessening dependencies on outside resources. But from the 1930s there emerged another field of enterprise that was not core business but did bring Repco local recognition and eventually, international fame. This was racing. In 1934 Repco sent Charles 'Dave' McGrath, who had begun as a messenger boy at the company in 1927, to re-organise the Launceston business along Melbourne lines, which he did with great success.